PRINCETON - Mozart's great but ultra-episodic
Don Giovanni so frequently defies any sense of theatrical sweep that it's easy to encounter new productions thinking, "Next victim. . . . "
That means Opera New Jersey's season-opening production at the McCarter Theatre could have been a music-centric presentation with little theatrical pretense, or something more ambitious that, with luck, would be more convincing than not.
The latter, quite happily, is what unfolded: This Don Giovanni was a genuine if uneven artistic statement, suggesting that Opera New Jersey is much more than a summertime stopgap. And in this era of operatic retrenchment, two of its three productions are in the larger Matthews Theatre (not the small Berlind) for the second consecutive season.
Casting was consistently strong, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under Joel Revzen managing the score with no audible labor, and stage director John Hoomes using a traditional representational framework for a number of innovations, many successful (and relatively unobtrusive when not).
An unusually brutal tone was established in the opening scene's swordfight: With his opponent dying before him, Don Giovanni cold-bloodedly pulls out a dagger to finish the job. From there, the opera becomes a distilled study in how people live by their own lies. The legendary Don cocoons himself in untruths: He believes staying faithful to one woman deprives the others of his company. His servant Leporello is especially nasty: A willing accomplice, he laughs scornfully at the abandoned girlfriends while fully fathoming the moral horror show unfolding before him. The staging accentuated the physical disparity of short-but-handsome Andrew Garland (Don Giovanni) and tall, unrefined Matt Boehler (Leporello).
The seemingly random arrivals and departures of the other characters were sensibly worked out, aside from some logic lapses in the Act 1 finale. Arias that are often staged as lone soliloquies were more effectively motivated with a relevant character onstage to hear the music's elaborate sentiments.
The use of video seen on a stage scrim was often distracting: You don't need to see a rainbow when Don Giovanni is seducing the peasant girl Zerlina. The crucial final scene had a video Commendatore glowering over the stage - novel but hardly spine-tingling.
The epilogue's twist ending I won't divulge except to say that it was brilliant.
Vocally, Garland was close to ideal, with a mellow tone quality and convincing theatrical intelligence. Laquita Mitchell's Donna Elvira felt technically unfinished at first but emerged in Act 2 with blazing charisma. Others were all excellent, if less distinctive, with a level of ensemble work not always seen in larger opera companies (thanks to conductor Revzen's giving everybody time to make his or her point) and plenty of attention to the recitative's dramatic content.
Don Giovanni
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Conductor: Joel Revzen. Stage director: John Hoomes. Set designer: Carey Wong. Lights and video: Barry Steele. Costumes: Patricia A. Hibbert.
Cast
Don Giovanni......Andrew Garland
Leporello...................Matt Boehler
Donna Anna...........Jennifer Blace
Donna Elvira........Laquita Mitchell
Zerlina........................Abigail Nims
Masetto..................David Cushing
Commendatore....Young-Bok Kim
Presented by Opera New Jersey with New Jersey Symphony Chamber Orchestra at the McCarter Theatre Center for the Performing Arts, Princeton, at 8 p.m.July 24 and 2 p.m. Aug. 1. Tickets: $35-$110. Information: 609-258-2787 or www. opera-nj.org
